From DE 101 40 424 A1 a transmission device or an automatically shiftable vehicle transmission is known, which is designed with a transmission input shaft that can be placed in active connection with a drive shaft of an internal combustion engine of a vehicle. The vehicle transmission further comprises a transmission output shaft that can be connected to at least one axle of the vehicle. One part of the transmission device, which is designed as a mechanical manual transmission, is engineered with a first planetary gearset and a second planetary gearset, several shifting components and an electric machine, which is provided as a starter-generator and/or for the continuously variable adjustment of the speed-gear ratio of the manual transmission and/or for at least the partial electric driving operation of a vehicle. For this purpose, the electric machine can be connected by way of two additional shifting components to a first shaft or to a second shaft of the first planetary gearset. In addition, the electric machine is associated with an electronic control system and a storage battery in which electric energy that is generated by the electric machine when it is operating in generator mode is temporarily stored.
Ordinarily, the components that are allocated to the electric machine, in other words the electronic control system and the storage battery, are positioned or mounted outside of the housing of a specific transmission device and are connected via electric lines to a coil winding of the electric machine.
One disadvantage of this, however, is that the electric lines that lead from the coil winding of the electric machine to the electronic control system are connected via plug connectors, which result in high manufacturing costs, and which also occupy a significant amount of structural space in the area of the connection contact. Furthermore, the electric lines have an electric resistance that is dependent upon the conductor length and reaches undesirably high levels as the distance between the electric machine and the electronic control system increases. This, in turn, leads to a substantial power dissipation during operation, which causes substantial heat development.
The object of the present invention is thus to provide a transmission device with an electric machine which has a compact design, can be produced cost-effectively, and is characterized in terms of the electric machine by a high degree of efficiency.